Sprightly

as ye sow… HINDEMITH Overture to Neues vom Tage HINDEMITH Trauermusik FRIEDMAN Sacred Heart: Explosion INTERMISSION BERLIOZ Harold in Italy Leonard Slatkin, conductor Pinchas Zukerman, viola All-Access Chamber Series Eugene Izotov, oboe John Bruce Yeh, clarinet Albert Igolnikov, violin Paul Phillips Jr., violin Robert Swan, viola John Sharp, cello Michael Hovnanian, bass Mozart Oboe Quartet Prokofiev Quintet, Op. 39 Brahms Clarinet Quintet Dvorak Slavonic Dance in E Minor, Op. 72, No. 2 Monday off Tuesday 10-12:30 rehearsal 1:30-3:30 Prokofiev quintet rehearsal Wednesday 10-12:30 1:30-3:30 rehearsals Thursday 10-12:30 rehearsal 8 concert Friday 1:30 concert 3:30-6 Prokofiev quintet rehearsal Saturday 2 All-Access Chamber Series concert 8 concert Sunday 3 concert 7:30 Ars Viva Benefit (Week 38 was last week. I’m now on vacation.) After Sunday the orchestra is on vacation until the Ravinia summer season begins in July. Usually we have our main vacation after Ravinia, in August and Septem...

Oy Vey! DVORÁK Symphony No. 8 INTERMISSION OLIVER Federal Street (Great God, we sing that mighty hand) HATTON Duke Street (O God, beneath thy guiding hand) ROOT Shining Shore TRADITIONAL Good Night, Ladies BISHOP Home, Sweet Home IVES New England Holidays [redacted] Symphony Chorus Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor Monday 2-4:30 Trout Quintet rehearsal Tuesday 10-12:30 rehearsal 12:30-2:30 Prokofiev Quintet rehearsal 7:30 concert (Rameau/Vivaldi) Wednesday 12-2:30 3:30-5:30 rehearsals Thursday 10-12:30 rehearsal 8 concert Friday 9:30-11:30 In-school concerts 1:30 concert 7:30 Trout Quintet concert Saturday 8 concert Sunday 7:30 Ars Viva Benefit rehearsal This week = last week. I’m behind again. We had one of the quirkier podium performances this week. In rehearsals the ratio of talk to useful information conveyed threatened to fall into the red zone. To make matters worse, although more entertaining, the Maestro’s score for the Ives didn’t seem to match the set of parts the players were...

Bicket’s charge VIVALDI Piccolo Concerto in C Major RAMEAU Suite from Les Boréades INTERMISSION VIVALDI The Four Seasons Harry Bicket, conductor Jennifer Gunn, piccolo Yuan-Qing Yu, violin Monday off Tuesday 10-12:30 rehearsal Wednesday 10-12 1-3:30 rehearsal Thursday 10-12:30 rehearsal 8 concert Friday 8 concert Saturday 8 concert Sunday 3 concert (Beyond the Score) The Vivaldi/Rameau program is repeated on Tuesday the 27th so, yes, we play the Four Seasons five times in a one-week span. It really feels more like seven since by the end of a Beyond the Score concert I feel as if I’ve run through the piece three times in a row. Any so-called baroque music specialist taking the podium at our concert hall is working behind enemy lines. The best ones drop in, stir up as little hostility as possible while accomplishing a limited mission and try to get the heck out unscathed. To that end, Bicket did an admirable job of coaxing an old dog to do a few new tricks. He came across as a fine music...

Here we go again… HAYDN Symphony No. 101 (The Clock) INTERMISSION SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 4 Bernard Haitink, conductor RAVEL Menuet antique LIEBERSON Neruda Songs INTERMISSION MAHLER Symphony No. 1 Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano Bernard Haitink, conductor Monday off Tuesday 7:30 concert (Haydn/Shostakovich) Wednesday travel to New York Thursday 12-2:30 rehearsal 8 concert Friday 11-1:30 rehearsal 8 concert Saturday travel to [the city where we live] Sunday off Yes, we are in New York again, I guess because each of our conductors gets a separate tour. With two music director surrogates, the orchestra is comparable to the child with a pair of elderly doting uncles, each offering a clandestine trip to the corner ice-cream parlor. The child of course would say nothing, aiming a conspiratorial wink at the counter-man, surprised to see him back so soon. So the following will I am sure generate some displeasure, along the lines of the child getting a kick in the shins from a little nephew w...

man of steel HAYDN Symphony No. 101 (The Clock) INTERMISSION SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 4 Bernard Haitink, conductor Monday off Tuesday 10-12:30 rehearsal Wednesday 10-12:30 1:30-3:30 rehearsals Thursday 10-12:30 rehearsal 8 concert Friday 8 concert Saturday 8 concert Sunday 3 concert At the Tuesday rehearsal Haitink made a few gracious remarks about the Muti appointment that were brief, understated and to the point – typical Haitink. Kudos to him as well for keeping the brain numbing aspects of the Shostakovich 4 as in check as can be hoped for. Nevertheless, we have to play the piece six times over the next two weeks, which is damaging enough. Unlike the Mahler 1, which we played twice in less than a year, the Shostakovich 4 was last performed in January of ’06. I suppose that is long ago enough, but it still seems odd to repeat the same symphony so soon when there are more than a dozen others. The run of concerts in ’06 included what has to be the most talked about Beyond the Score p...

The “I hate Mahler 1” post generated quite a few comments and questions. The Neruda Songs were sung by Kelley O’Connor, mezzo-soprano. Sorry, her name didn’t make it into the post. Some hapless bassist probably concocted the description of the Mahler 1 solo as unplayable. Maybe the words ‘by me’ were dropped at some point. As his close relationship with Bottesini is well documented, Mahler obviously had an idea what the bass was capable of playing. Even if Mahler 1 is a masterpiece, I can’t bring myself to enjoy it. It’s not Mahler (or Haitink’s) fault the piece is way over programmed. I’m a big fan of what Haitink does with Mahler, in particular the way he is able to keep vulgarity from creeping into passages where it has no business. BTW, Haitink has always reminded me more of Nikita Khrushchev.